Classifying the Final Fantasy Games
(super nerdy extremely long post about this Here)
Some people classify the games as "old school" and "new" games, but I do not think that accurately sets up things. It does not answer the questions on where Final Fantasy 7 goes, or when the "new" era actually starts. First, I have to bring up that there are actually two "brands" of Final Fantasy in the 8 and 16 bit eras. We only saw one of these in early 90's. There is Final Fantasy A, which includes parts 1, 3 and 5. We only got part 1 originally. These games have the "job class" system. Instead of a large cast of characters coming and going at plot points, you are instead given many jobs that the small class can switch between at different times or choose at one time before playing. Final Fantasy B contains the ones we are more familiar with here in the West, parts 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9. These have set classes and when something new is needed, we generally get a new cast member. They have sweeping stories that are focused on narrative instead of the technical side of gameplay.
This brings up the subject of Technology. The "modern" era of Final Fantasy is 8, 10, and 13. This classification has nothing to do with technology because they have all had varying technology. Part 1 had a space station and a war mech! Part 4 has that thing.. you know the one... you know... Whale? Trying to put the steampunk Final Fantasy 6 in between is silly as well. What I mean by "modern" I mean that the cultures and influences of the world are focused much more on modern day Japanese culture and pop-fashion. You already know about Ivalice
There is another school of thought. The school of thought that Final Fantasy is not about its tropes, that it is more related to the creator Sakaguchi than that of Chocobos, Bahamuts and Dragoons. Sakaguchi left the series after Final Fantasy 10, and has made games since. His games Lost Odyssey and The Last Story are considered by some to be where the true sequels have gone, especially by those that hate the "Modern" era. He also did Blue Dragon, but that feels more like a Chrono Trigger.
There is an argument for Seven to be "modern" and shares a lot with the other "modern" games, but even though the dress is modern, the characters are stylized in the way that the characters from the A and B games are stylized. While there is angst and "crazy" in the story, the story is much more focused on the world at large, and not so much all about the group inner drama. Sure, Cloud and Tiffa have some dramage(typo but I like the word; drama and damage), but Cid and Red 13 don't have it out. Vincent and Yuffy don't have beef with Cait Sith. The modern games have EVERYONE pulling a 90210 with EVERYONE.
So yea.
April 28th, 2014
For about 3 years now I've mainly watched Youtube or Netflix. Yogscast is by far the most channels I have subscribed to, but they have expanded a bit larger than I've been willing to keep up with. There are about 5 channels added now that I do not really know how good the stuff is. So, each week I'm going to add a new subscription to these channels and if I watch enough of their channel that I like, I'll keep them, but from now on, being "Yogscast" doesn't automatically mean I am subscribing. I am preparing to unsub to Parv, Zoey and possibly Dave-Chaos as it is, mostly because I just don't watch their stuff, so its more like "spam". I like Dave though, as a person, so he might get a pass. I'll be subbing to Pyrion Flax this week, he seems like the closest fit for the Yogs, which makes sense because he's an old Goon from the WoW days of their team.
Tried a few colognes as of late. I have to say that I liked "Lucky You" pretty well, its a fresh one that reminds me a little of Tommy and a little of CK. I could see myself wearing it, but I already have a few things that fit its profile, so the purposes would overlap. A few of the bad ones... I tried the James Bond one and holy cow can you say sandalwood? It was so strong in sandalwood that all the undertones were drowned out. I also tried Kenneth Cole Black because I have had a lot of luck with colognes that have "black" in them(Stetson Black is currently my favorite cool weather, every day cologne). It became botanical and sweet, and eventually became so botanical that it smelled somewhat like Icy Hot somehow.
Tuesday I am going to be doing a lot of RPG world work. I have not done a lot of work on one since I made that Mad Max one shot in Savage Worlds. This is different though, this is "my" scifi space opera setting. I have decided that I will have worlds that I just always use for certain things. I have a Fantasy world done in what I tried to do in a "professional" manner, but I had never decided on one Scifi world because there's so many sub-genre. This one will just be my Star Wars/Star Trek/Firefly type of space opera world(well... universe), and not have the cyberpunk stuff. I got my outline all set up, and lots of little notes on things. I know I can't get it all done in one day, but I can do a hell of a lot. Just like my Fantasy world, it will be system agnostic. I've been reading Traveller and now I'm seeing why the GURPs edition was popular as well; aside from the character creation there just isn't anything stand-out about the system. Its not like Legend of the 5 Rings or Shadowrun where you lose something if you change the system.
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